The Channel | 2004 | September

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Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
10 | the channel
RFI in DR Congo; new top-level
appointments
Radio France Internationale is broadcasting
round the clock in French on 98FM in Matadi,
Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the fourth
RFI relay with Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Bunia.
Transmitters in Kisangani and Bukavuwill follow.
Antoine Schwarz, RFI’s new President-Director
General, has nominated Jean-Claude Benoist as
Secretary General and Michel Guerin as Advisor
to the President. AlainMenargues succeeds Gilles
Schneider as Deputy Director General and
Director of Broadcasting. Martine Paris is the
newHead of Human Resources, and André Sarfati
the new Head of Communications.
Major break-through for Autocue’s
QSeries in India; partnership with SGL
The Indian television broadcaster, Doordarshan
has chosen Autocue’s QSeries NRCS and QSeries
Automation, in the form of Cap Gen Control,
for seven regional newsrooms. Currently
Doordarshan’s 24 hours News Channel, DD News
is using 35 QSeries Licenses. Autocue now has
ten QSeries Newsroom installations in India,
thus making it Autocue’s leading business
market in Asia and the subcontinent.
Autocue also announced its partnership with
Software Generation Ltd (SGL), a leading
provider of video storage management
software. The SGL and Autocue collaboration
will see the integration of SGL FlashNet, the
company’s leading software storage solution,
which provides the link between video stored
as files on video servers, editing systems, and
the long term archive library, and Autocue’s
QNews and QMedia solutions. From the Autocue
application interface users will be able to send
and retrieve material directly to and from the
library. SGL FlashNet will be exhibited on
Autocue’s stand 7.329 throughout IBC 2004.
DW-TV heads to tapeless production
Pebble Beach Systems has installed a multi-
channel Neptune automation system at
Deutsche Welle Television in Berlin as part of
the DW-TV’s move to tapeless news production
and playout. DW-TV plays out 24-hour rolling
news channels from three server-based studios
to viewers all over the world, in German, English
and Spanish. Neptune controls 28 Omneon
server ports, two Sony Betacarts and eight
external VTRs with two main device and two
backup controllers, three transmission clients,
one ingest client, one main housekeeper with
SQL server database and one backup
housekeeper. Rundowns are imported from DW-
TV’s Newswire newsroom system and
automatically converted into the Pebble Beach
playlists. Playout is controlled from client
stations in the studios where multiple decoders
are available to each rundown and operators
are able to start events at any time. “We
considered many automation systems available
on the market and chose Pebble Beach for its
ability to use the same client application to
handle everything in the gallery,” said Gerald
Kampe, project manager, DW-TV.
RadioScape announces new family of DAB modules
In August RadioScape introduced RS300L, a module that enables receivers to be built with
Band III and L-band Eureka 147 DAB, integral FM, and RDS with the innovative features of
multi-channel decode, Electronic Programme Guide on a colour display, pause and rewind
of live broadcasts plus recording to removable memory.
The next area of major growth for DAB digital radio will be the automotive sector. The
original concept of DAB was to improve mobile reception, yet it’s now lagging well behind
the domestic market. Today, however, many car manufacturers are defining their
digital radio strategy. Using the experience from designing its highly successful
range of DAB modules for the kitchen radio market, RadioScape is now launching
a module designed specifically for the DAB automotive market – the RS350A (right).
Nigel Oakley,VPMarketing at RadioScape, said, “The car is a challenging environment
both physically and electronically. Our initial discussions with car radio manufacturers
have enabled us to fine-tune the RS350A to precisely meet their requirements - it can
be quickly customised via software for their individual applications.”
The new module has several new features for automotive use. It can process three DAB channels
on a multiplex simultaneously to provide any combination of audio channels and data channels of
news or travel information. Service Linking enables the radio to automatically move to associated
stations when the first goes out of range using linking information provided by the broadcaster.
Targeted television – commercial reality with Inmedia
Inmedia is launching a new Remote Playout & Distribution solution at IBC 2004 which
dramatically reduces playout and distribution costs. It is aimed at channels that want to
distribute regionally tailored content. It opens up new markets around the world as in one
operation the content can be selected, the right audio track and subtitles added, the upload
and scheduling of the remote playout of multiple TV channels achieved - from almost
anywhere. The efficiency savings and reduction in access costs to remote markets are dramatic.
Starting from a centrally held pool of digital assets, programming for each remote TV channel
is created and scheduled directly from the desktop. Content is delivered in non-real time via
satellite multicast or the Internet to remote playout servers for onward local distribution to a
precisely targeted audience. This is helpful for broadcasters with rights to programming in
certain regions so that schedules containing only the content you have purchased can be run.
Inmedia’s Sales Director for Broadcast Services, Matthew Ivey, says: “This application will allow
operators to target new customers in newmarkets and has huge potential to get newTV channels onto
platforms that would until now have been too expensive to access. Our calculations show that our
remote service makes it possible to add an additional TV territory for as little as £30K per annum.”
I have i-mode – do you?
Euronews is launching an i-mode version of the service to Belgian mobile customers. The offering
is available via the Base mobile network and delivers news video, photographs and text from its
Europa, Agenda and Economia programming in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and
Portuguese. Euronews launched an i-mode service via mobile operator Bouyges Telecom at the
beginningof July,witha similar service availableover theGPRSnetworks inAustria andSwitzerland.
The BBC is launching its international news content and breaking news alerts on the new i-
mode platform for mobile phones in Greece. Starting in August, BBC news headlines and
summaries, in Greek and English, along with breaking news alerts in English are displayed
on an i-mode platform hosted by the Greek mobile operator, Cosmote and provided by the
Greek media group Imako Media SA.
Mobile users in Norway can now watch TV on their phones, 24 hours a day, thanks to NRK,
the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Alongside the live streaming, people can choose
more specialised content such as a news bulletin every hour and a fast-paced motoring show.
NRK expects the content to become more tailored as the market picks up. At present it is
simply testing consumer demand. The technology behind the video content has been developed
by Norwegian firm RubberDuck Media Lab.
New Colossus from Omnibus
OmniBus Systems has released a major new version of its leading large-scale, multichannel,
multidelivery automation and control system. The new Colossus Version 3 combines the
proven multichannel architecture of the core Colossus automation system with the modular
flexibility of OmniBus G3 technology. The result is a system able to control an unlimited
number of channels, items, or devices - all through customisable desktop-based user interfaces
- to provide new levels of efficiency and flexibility to today’s large-scale broadcast operations.
Colossus Version 3 bridges the gap between video, audio, Internet, and data-streaming
applications, and new revenue opportunities can be developed thanks to the flexibility and
expandability built into Colossus Version 3.
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